Two-day Strategic Planning Retreat started in Minsk Crowne Plaza Hotel on 18 June 2014. The Retreat is devoted to the planning of the UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) for Belarus for 2016–2020. The participants of the event are the UN Country Team members, representatives of the government of Belarus, private sector, civil society organizations and other national and international development partners.

“I hope that this meeting will allow us to define the demand for the UN expert assistance, determine the main strategic goals and needs of Belarus as well as plan cooperation between the UN and Belarus for the next five–year period,” Yuri Oksamitniy, UNICEF Representative in Belarus, told participants in his opening speech.

During the two days the participants of the Strategic Planning Retreat will discuss the issues of sustainable development of Belarus. By the end of the event the representatives of the UN agencies and their national partners will determine the priority cooperation areas between Belarus and UN for 2016–2020.

Presently, Belarus implements the UNDAF for Belarus for 2011–2015 which is the first joint strategy of the UN organizations acting in the country. The UNDAF supports the country national priorities and the Millennium Development Goals as well as implementation of other international development commitments.

The second UNDAF, which is currently consideringby the participants of the Retreat, will define the new Belarus–UN strategic cooperation priorities based on the national development priorities as well as the international development goals till the end of the current decade.

The priorities defined during the retreat will later turn into concrete objectives and projects to be implemented in Belarus till 2020.